


Under New Management

by Anais Nine (hellfrog)



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition, League of Legends
Genre: Alternate Canon, Canon-Typical Violence, Crossover, Crossover Pairings, Eventual Minor Iron Bull/Dorian Pavus, F/M, Female Friendships, Fix-It of Sorts, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Magic and Science, Profanity, Ramsicles, The League is bullshit, Unreliable Narrator, Very mild PTSD, creativity with magic, magical girl in Thedas, not so mild PTSD (poor Cullen)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-06
Updated: 2018-07-23
Packaged: 2018-08-13 11:54:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 14,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7975900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hellfrog/pseuds/Anais%20Nine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The DA:I and League of Legends crossover absolutely no one asked for!  What if, instead of the usual port onto Summoner's Rift, a champion in the League of Legends was magically summoned through the Breach and into Thedas? Cosmic bad timing, and doom for all? Not if that champion happens to be Luxanna Crownguard: spellthief, spy, hero to her people, natural leader.  Join the Lady of Luminosity as she attempts to figure out where she is, what's going on, who is to blame, the truth about the League, and most importantly: how to fix it all.</p><p>This is the story of a DA:I playthrough, but it will probably go wildly canon-divergent places (for both games). The relationship tags are to be taken with a grain of salt. There's a bit of entanglement in lots of directions, but none will follow the Bioware romance storylines. If ever anything sexually explicit finds its way into this work (unlikely as it seems to me now, and I'm 1/3 through it) I will tag those chapters, for sure.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 1 - Abyssal Voyage

**Author's Note:**

> This is a weird thing that got in my head when I decided to do a second, more completionist playthrough of DA:I. I was dithering in character creation and decided for the hell of it to use my favorite character from another game, and try to make the choices I think she would. So, um, here we have Lux from League of Legends as the Inquisitor. I am not sure why I'm even posting this beyond thinking it will maybe keep me motivated to finish it. 
> 
> Seven important notes:  
> 1\. I'm using sort of a mashup of the original LOL lore (where the league and the summoners are actual things) and the new, revised lore for Lux and Demacia, because it is awesome. Thus, I'm going back and editing the already posted chapters to make it make more sense - and hopefully suck less.  
> 2\. This is going to be hugely canon divergent. How much remains to be seen, but if I finish this thing as I planned, it is Going Places. Odd, non game canon places (for both games) - which I guess is standard fare for crossovers.  
> 3\. Varric calls Lux Sunshine. This is a mage Hawke world state, so Varric never met Bethany and never gave her the nickname. RIP Bethany, you sweet melon-breasted girl. :(  
> 4\. I have mostly rewritten/paraphrased/changed the in game dialogue, but there are probably a few phrases here and there ripped directly from Bioware. Thank you based Bioware.  
> 5\. I'm sorry? I don't even know. I have never written fan fiction before, but this wouldn't leave me alone. I love Lux and her batshit lore and I had so much fun roleplaying her in Inquisition that I had to start writing about it.  
> 6\. I don't have anyone reading this as a beta reader, but I am editing and making second passes before posting.  
> 7\. I guess I only had six notes. <3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a weird thing that got in my head when I decided to do a second, more completionist playthrough of DA:I. I was dithering in character creation and decided for the hell of it to use my favorite character from another game, and try to make the choices I think she would. So, um, here we have Lux from League of Legends as the Inquisitor. Because why not? I also rewrote what I had done, to account for the new (better) LOL Lore. BECAUSE WHY NOT?

Luxanna Crownguard did not often have nightmares. Some, occasionally - no soldier escaped the battlefield entirely unscathed, after all. They were predictable: the screams of the wounded and dying, seeing her companions fall around her, being captured; that sort of thing. The more disturbing dreams were about her magic. Losing control, hurting people, or being discovered. Being driven from her home and banished into exile - usually by her brother. 

But she never dreamed about desolate, green-tinged wastelands and the skittering of legs in the echoing shadows. Until now. She raised a hand and twisted light around her fingers, illuminating the bare, craggy ground around her. . .and a veritable sea of chitinous bodies slithering over one another and sidling ever closer. The flash of light seemed to incite them and the beasts surged towards her, a rising wave of claw tipped legs and snapping mandibles.

Something primal snapped inside of her, and Lux experienced another first: fleeing in panic. Whatever those things were, they were arachnoid and large and wrong and seeing them on the move made her heart pound in her throat. It was a nightmare, it had to be, but even asleep she was Demacian and Demacians did not FLEE. They could, however, make tactical retreats. She leapt at a rocky spire and began a desperate climb. Attain the high ground. Reassess. She looked up past her hand to gauge the height of the spire and saw. . .someone above her? It was hard to tell, really it was just vaguely human shape, limned in light from some swirling morass behind it - familiar but indistinct in that way of dreams. It held out a hand to her and she heard a cocky voice yelling, "Move your ass! We've got to get out of here!"

It was sound advice. Lux climbed faster, boots scrabbling on the jagged stone. She could hear the atrocities behind her, gaining, and wasted no time looking behind her to see if they could climb. It was a nightmare, of course they could. With a final surge, Lux managed to close her gloved hand around the gleaming one extended down to her, and she was pulled up and slung forward with more force than one might expect an indistinct silhouette to exert.

She crashed through a snapping, lime colored portal and hit yet another stony surface, hard. Too hard. A groan escaped her and for a moment instinct had her hands beneath her, attempting to push her upright before she could discern which direction that might be. She collapsed in a heap and knew nothing else as darkness claimed her.


	2. 2 - Apprehend

Awareness coalesced slowly. The first thing she heard was her own muted groan, her body announcing to her still-foggy mind that everything hurt, and there was some general unhappiness about that. Had she been asleep? Wisps of a nightmare lingered on the edges of her consciousness, and her eyes shot open. Big mistake.

"Ow. Okay." Lux said ruefully through her wince as pain seared her brain. //Let's try that again. Slowly.// Much more cautiously, she cracked her eyes open for the second time and blinked in confusion. It was rather dark. Dank, even. She was lying on a stone floor, and something was tickling her cheek - hair? The motion to sweep it away was aborted by the metallic snap of a chain limiting her range of motion. That snap was followed immediately by the the more familiar metallic sound of swords being drawn.

She was chained; shackled, in fact. Lux froze as the realization hit her, everything around her crystallizing into almost painful clarity. There were soldiers standing around her, three? No, four. All of them stared at her from the depths of metal helms. All of them had their swords pointed down at her. What? Where was she? Their gear had not the gleaming, polished lustre of Demacian steel, she noted. This was not her exile. Somewhere in the empire? Zaun? It was dirty; water, stinking with heavy minerals and mold, trickled listlessly down the stone walls. She found herself staring at the point of the sword just to her left as she slowly tried to push herself up onto her knees, everything else blurring again.

No. //Focus.// She was already chained - clearly caught, and that was bad. That she couldn't remember what she'd been doing was. . .equally bad? Maybe worse, but not as immediately relevant as what she was going to DO. //Focus!// She forced herself to inhale, consciously pulling the air in to her lungs, and let her training take over. Exits? One door to the room, no windows at all that she could see. Realistically, she'd need to get past three of the soldiers to get to that door. Worth it, then, to expend the mana to shatter her bindings? A rattle in the lock made the decision for her, and she stilled, watching two women enter the room. One was hooded, the other...imposing. She was tall and solid, dressed in steel and leather. A few battle scars decorated her face, though they did nothing, in Lux's opinion, to diminish her loveliness. Miss Hood stood off a few paces, silently crossing her arms, while the Juggernaut circled around behind Lux. Ignoring the predatory prowling, Luxanna tried to peer through the door to get an idea of what lay beyond the dungeon she found herself in. A hallway, from the looks of it, slanting upward. Underground, maybe? That would explain the lack of windows, even slitted ones.

"Everyone who attended the Conclave is dead. . .except for you." The Juggernaut behind her spoke in a cold tone, the words clipped despite the rich accent Lux couldn't immediately place. "Tell me why we should not kill you now."

Her thoughts raced. She stayed quiet, because for once in her life she could not think of anything appropriate to say. What conclave? She had no recollection of attending any 'conclave', or even an invitation to one. What did she remember? That was a frightening blank, and her mind skittered away from it.

With barely restrained fury, the woman seized Lux's left arm and raised her shackled hands in her face. "Nothing? Then explain THIS." Lux's eyes blew wide. Between her loosely curled fingers, she could see winking shafts of sickly green light. It reminded her of her nightmare, and sent shards of pain lancing up her arm with each crackle as the armored woman agitated it.

Now that she saw it, she could feel it -- not the pain, but the magic itself. Like a splinter wedged between bone and skin. She felt her light, too, as a sort of pressure there, like it was trying to expel this foreign energy. Fascination warred with revulsion and Lux abandoned her silence. Despite the threat, they wanted her alive, and this strange magic was probably why. "I don't know what that is. Do you?" Maybe it was something familiar to them. A curse? "I'm sure there's -- ow." Sneering, the juggernaut shoved her hand, and Lux had to brace herself against the spears of pain that shot from her marked hand towards her heart. She gasped, and counted herself lucky her voice didn't crack. "I don't know what you're asking me. I don't...remember. I'm sorry."

"Sorry?" The juggernaut thundered in disbelief, reaching for the sword at her hip. She was stopped by a gloved hand on her arm, and the quiet words of Miss Hood. "We need her, Cassandra." The juggernaut - Cassandra - made a disgusted noise, and while some unspoken communication passed between the two women, Lux looked again at her hand.

Her left glove was missing, whether destroyed by her ordeal or removed to inspect the strange magic, she didn't know. Shackled as she was, she could just reach the fingertips of her right hand with her left, and she tugged the right glove off. It would never be white - or whole - again, and so she let it drop carelessly to the floor. Her right hand seemed completely normal, save a few scrapes on her palm. She thought suddenly of the portal from her nightmare, and the sensation of hitting stones as sharp as glass. "...those things were chasing me, and..someone -- someone pulled me up?" Miss Hood overheard, and seized upon it.

"Was it a woman?" She asked, her accent making Lux think of Fiora. Was she in Laurent lands?

"I don't..." Lux pulled her brows together, struggling to remember. It had sounded like Ezreal, but she wasn't going to say that. Ezreal was not a part of Demacian politics, and she didn't want to involve him in whatever this was.

Cassandra scoffed and knelt briefly in front of her, using a thick iron key to release the manacles. She replaced them roughly with rope, binding Lux's wrists together. "Go, Leliana. I will bring her to the rift." The rift? What rift? She thought instantly of the rupture and her heart pounded in her ears. No. These people were angry, but they were not void-touched. A Summoner's rift? Her mind whirled and she reeled as she was dragged to her feet as if she weighed nothing. 

Cassandra's firm grip was lucky; her knees wobbled dangerously for the first few steps. How long had she been unconsciou? She added the possibility of brain damage to her growing list of concerns, somewhere in the middle. 

"What happened?" She managed to ask, despite her rolling stomach. "The...Conclave?" 

"There was an explosion," Cassandra said after a moment, bodily moving Lux up the hallway she'd glimpsed before. "You were the only survivor of the cataclysm."

"Cataclysm?" Lux was confused. It must have shown in her face, because Cassandra just shook her head and pounded on the heavy double doors before them. 

The doors swung open from without. "It will be easier to show you," Cassandra said heavily.

Light mage or not, the stark brilliance of the wintry sky blinded her, after the gloom of the cell she'd been kept in. Lux winced, angling her head down and blinking furiously at the piercing glare that was her surroundings. Cassandra was marching her through some sort of village, its inhabitants mostly standing around and gawking, from the looks of it. At her. At the sky. She narrowly managed to twist out of the way of a rock someone threw, and somehow it hurt her feelings, despite the wild shock of her situation. "They have already decided your guilt," Cssandra said, in a tone that did not indicate she disagreed. "They need someone to blame. To punish." Lux could hear the strain in her captor's voice. "This was our chance for peace between the mages and templars, and now..." Cassandra's heavy voice sharpened to an edge. "There will be a trial. I promise you that."

The words were mingled threat and assurance, and Lux felt sick to her stomach. A cataclysm? Mages fighting? What had she gotten into? Had she lost control of her power, and hurt people? It had always been her gravest fear - but before she'd learned to control it, her power had escaped her as warm, winking lights - tricking sunbeams. Never anything dangerous! "Who will preside over it?" She asked, voice faint in her ears over the pounding of her heart. Was she finally exposed, then?

Cassandra, who was clearly a warrior and probably a soldier, gave her a glance somewhere between fury and incredulity. "The Chantry is in disarray. The templars have deserted it, and the Divine is -- dead. It is too soon to tell."

What? That was one hundred percent nonsense, as far as Lux was concerned. //This isn't Demacia,// she told herself. That meant, wherever she was, simply being a mage was not enough to damn her. She had to focus on the situation, not her fears. What was a templar? Who was the Divine? The Chantry? Why were mages fighting? If this wasn't Demacia, and it certainly wasn't, where was she? Everything, everyone, looked WRONG. Not obviously wrong, like they were made of paper or had too many limbs, but nothing looked familiar. Not even the architecture. It was a rustic village, and she saw no echoes of a larger society she could recognize. No polished Demacian grandeur, no spiked and imposing press of the empire. No serene arches or supple wooden structures like Ionia. No glass globes or hextech at all, either. Snow dusted the ground. Could she be across the mountains, into the Freljord? Lux looked owlishly at a woman in a dawn-colored dress and a peculiar hat, who seemed to be intoning something as they passed.

"...are they who stand before the corrupt and the wicked, and do not falter." A catechism, then? "Blessed are the peacekeepers..." The woman caught Lux's eye and her ruddy face twisted into an expression of naked loathing. "For you have brought Sin to Heaven," she hissed. "And doom upon all the world."

//Yikes.// Lux hastily turned her gaze away, still squinting against the glare. She was fairly sure she had never been on the receiving end of a look so hateful in all her life. "I don't know why I was there," she murmured, and she didn't bother to keep the plaintive note out of her voice. It was genuine. Cassandra glared at her sidelong, and when she opened her mouth a thunderclap roared out. No, it came from above, a sharp crack that shook the earth. Two things happened at once: A sickly flash of green light washed over everything around her, and a flare of pain far more severe than any she had felt before stabbed towards her heart from her hand. She cried out, ashamed but unable to stop herself, and fell to her knees despite Cassandra's grip on her arm. The taller woman knelt in front of her, waiting for Lux's swimming vision to focus before she spoke.

"We call it the Breach. A rift opened into the world of demons, and not the only one - just the largest." Oh, no. A tear into the void? A new rupture? Cassandra gestured upward - not to the void below. "The larger the breach grows, the more rifts appear. The more demons we face. Every time it expands, your mark does as well, and it IS killing you." In the rush of blessed numbness after the pain faded, Lux's skin crawled at the thought she might have a PIECE OF IT inside her hand. She looked from her pulsing palm up...to a nightmare. 

It was fascinating, if disturbing to look at. The winter blue skies were split by an angry morass of magical energy - the breach, she guessed. It was a swirling locus of eerie lights, and arcs of energy, and it was beautiful, in a way. It was also dropping those chunks of stone down to earth wreathed in violent green flames, which seemed like bad news for anyone on the ground. Runeterra was a world scarred and changed by magical anomalies of both the 'unforseen consequences' and the 'who cares about consequences' variety. It made her sad to see it. Was this truly the inevitable consequence of magic? Were her people right?

Slowly, far too slowly, Cassandra's words sunk in. They caught up, and Lux snapped her gaze to the other woman. Her thoughts raced around in cycles of near-panic, followed by attempts to latch onto what was happening around her; to make sense of the situation and regain control. "You think this mark could be useful." She was wiped out, aching all over and feeling weirdly hollow. Maybe it was the casual assertion that she was dying in a much more immediate sense than usual.

An expression Lux could not decipher beyond discomfort clouded Cassandra's face. "That mark may be the key to closing the Breach, but we don't have much time." She held out her hand, palm up.

Lux glanced once more at the 'breach', listening to the faint sound of screams she could now hear in the distance, and then hooked her bound wrists over the outstretched hand. Death was raining down on the snow-covered hills - she could be sure of that if nothing else. "I understand." She didn't. "I'll do whatever I can." She would.

Cassandra nodded and pulled the smaller blonde back onto her feet. They trudged up alongside an icy river, stony slopes on each side, pausing twice more as thunderclaps from the Breach sent Lux reeling. A bridge came into sight up ahead, as they rounded a jut of snow-dusted stone, and Cassandra took a knife from her belt and gestured Lux closer. She sliced through the binding rope, evidently as tired of hauling Lux out of the snow as Lux was of landing in it. Still, it felt good to be free, at least in the physical sense. One less thing. Lux nodded her gratitude and trotted out onto the bridge.

"How do you know I was the only survivor?" Lux called back, thinking of that voice she'd heard - or thought she'd heard.

"Those first to the crater said you fell out of the rift." Cassandra's voice was hesitant. Disbelief? "There was another behind you, but no one -" Lux was wondering what that meant, and how exactly she'd gotten into a 'rift', when one of the green brimstone bombs hit the bridge, clipping the foundation at an angle and smashing through the masonry. Luxanna gave an undignified squeal as the structure crumbled away beneath her feet, terror surging up in her throat. She grabbed for the side of a cart and tumbled down, landing with a groan amidst chunks of stone and the goods from the upended wagon. Whetstone, a wheel, blankets, and a scatter of blades and axes were strewn about. She was lucky she hadn't been crushed by the cart toppling after her -- she hadn't been so lucky with the sharps in the cargo. A bloody smear sliced luridly across a patch of dead grass and snow after she lurched to her feet, heart pounding. 

Taking a quick inventory (of herself this time, not the cart), it seemed nothing was broken. That was a much needed sliver of good luck. "Demons!" Cassandra cried. "Stay behind me!"

Demons? Lux did as Cassandra bade, stepping back three times as the woman drew her sword. She called up magic to her fingertips, ready to act to protect the woman, if need be. Demons were not the sort of thing your average warrior should engage with a simple sword. At least, none that she'd encountered. She was prepared for the shadows; the creeping, oppressive darkness. She was not prepared for the vaguely man-shaped wisp of smoke and malice wearing shreds of a hooded robe and bringing wicked claws to bear against Cassandra's shield...nor for the one that began to rise out of the bubbling green mess at her feet, between her and her captor/protector. Luckily, Cassandra appeared to be far more than a middling warrior, and Lux focused on the danger in front of her. 

She dodged back around the spilled wagon, hoping the thing would be drawn towards the fighting soldier. A slash of darkness opened in its face and an unearthly shriek issued forth, and Lux had to admit to herself that hoping wasn't always the best plan. This was all some sort of conflict centered around mages, even if she wasn't in her magic-fearing homeland, and she didn't want to openly sling magic around. But even that good sense had to bow to survival instincts when the thing - the demon - lunged for her. She flung out a hand and bent light around the thing, hardening it into a cage that prevented movement and dazzled from the inside, reflecting and refracting heaven and firmament and leaving most that got caught in it completely disoriented. It was temporary, though. There were staves among the cargo that had spilled in their tumble, but sword it would have to be, though she hadn't really practiced with one in - what? A year? More? How long had it...no, focus. It felt familiar enough in her hand as she brough it up to deflect the swipe of claws lashing out for her face, and then brought it back in a cross slash to try and get room. She couldn't be sure a thrust would stop a thing that might not feel pain.

Or maybe she was underestimating the thrust. A blade burst through it from behind, center mass, and the creature began to dissolve with another of those inhuman shrieks. Pulling her sword free of the vanquished thing, Cassandra pointed it again - this time at Lux. "Drop your sword!"

"Of course," Lux said, hiding her exasperation with a sweet tone as she reversed the blade in her hand and began to lower it to the ground. "That demon would have eviscerated me, though."

Cassandra huffed, putting up her open hand to belay Lux and then sheathing her sword. "No, you are right. You should have a weapon. I can't protect you. And.. you agreed to come willingly. I should remember that."

"Of course," Lux repeated in a warmer tone. Progress! She stuck the sword through the loop in her belt, and Cassandra frowned - though whether this was confusion or disdain for Lux's (admittedly rusty) swordsmanship, she couldn't say. 

"Would you not prefer a staff?" Cassandra asked. "You are a mage." Well, that secret was out. 

"Yes," Lux agreed determinedly, turning her eyes back to the few staves that had spilled out. They were far too long to be batons purely for spellwork, in her opinion, and they had distressingly long blades at the ends that made the idea of twirling them daunting. But..oh! That one had a prism of clear glass for a focus. She could work with that. Keeping the sword in her belt, she bent to pick it up, and then braced it across the jutting lip of the broken wagon. "Could you cut it off, with that hatchet? Right there." 

Cassandra must have dismissed her misgivings, because she hefted the axe and chopped through the staff in two blows, leaving the much shorter shaft with a dangerously angled end. Not, perhaps, as dangerous as the seven inch blade that had formerly been on the end of it, but Lux wanted no part of that. She was exhausted and confused and had already cut herself up in the tumble off the bridge. Her forearm boasted a stinging slash, and her suit had been sliced below her ribs, revealing torn skin. The balance on the shortened staff was terrible, and she wasn't sure how it would function, but the strange mark on her hand was her real contribution, wasn't it? Cassandra wasn't dragging her up a mountain to test her combat abilities.

"Wait, take these potions. Maker knows what we will face." Lux took them, three small glass vials. She must have stared blankly a moment too long, pondering the unfamiliar concoctions, because Cassandra gestured impatiently. "Take one now. You're bleeding."

Nearly numb with her exhaustion and confusion, Lux thumbed out the cork on one of the vials and obediently drank it. It didn't taste great, but it wasn't exactly disgusting. To her surprise, it stopped the bleeding, the gash in her arm beginning the knitting process at an accelerated rate. A healing potion, then? She knew they were used, she'd even seen them before, but they were not common in Demacia. 

She was still battered, bruised, dirty, thirsty and so weirdly hollow, though. It felt almost as if she were drained of mana, but she wasn't -- she could feel her magic, a gentle pressure in her chest reminding her that if she'd just ease up on her self control, if she'd just let go, it would happily burst out of her and bathe the world in energy. Light, and heat. The idea of using some of that simmering energy to warm herself up was tempting, but she opted to conserve. As the woman behind her said, maker only knew what they would face...or what would be expected of her in the attempt to use her marked hand to close the demon-dripping tear in the sky. Best to keep her aces up her sleeves.

Not that she had any idea what maker Cassandra was referring to.


	3. 3 - Ebb and Flow

"Where are your soldiers?" She asked Cassandra. The armed guards watching her drool in that dungeon and the few men who had been saluting her captor at the gates couldn't be the lot of them.

"Fighting in the valley," the woman replied. Lux had no idea where 'the valley' was, so she simply nodded and followed the woman along the riverbed. It was frozen underfoot, slick in places and blanketed with snow in others. Flakes drifted down. So did ash. They veered left, up some rough steps hewn into the mountainside. The bridge had, after all, been destroyed. 

Halfway up they encountered a few more demons. She let Cassandra leap to engage them with sword and shield (and what looked a lot like a magical war cry, Miss Gasp You Are a Mage), while she hung back and kept a watchful eye. To her mild surprise, the chopped-off staff made a decent focus, giving her the ability to lob attacks at the creatures by swinging it and focusing small bursts of mana. It wasn't exactly like her baton, but Cassandra was more than capable. After the last of them (a floating green torso with a terrible attitude) shredded away into nothingness, Cassandra paused, head cocked, and then broke past Lux into a trot. "Hurry! You can hear them fighting!"

Lux almost asked who, but cresting the top of those steps onto a level area, she saw things on fire amidst the wreckage of stone and wood and metal. She saw a leg. A hand. She heard no moans, no cries for help - at least not over the more pressing sound of the battle ahead. Cassandra was right, ahead of her in the shell of what must have been a truly enormous set of stone walls, she could see a skirmish taking place beneath an obviously magical anomaly. Was that the rift? It was fascinating and obviously out of place, but it somehow didn't feel like the void, to her. She told herself it was for more scientific reasons than 'this is green, not purple'. Maybe it was, too. She was so tired she was running largely on instinct, and couldn't have put logical words to most of her impressions, if asked.

She tried to sort out the combatants she could see as Cassandra slid down the crumbling stones and slammed a fiend over a low, broken half wall with her shield. There were those inhuman demons, a thin bald guy, a dad-farmer man with brown hair and a hatchet, and. . .a yordle? No. Just a very short, very stocky man. Bald Guy was shooting elemental drips and drabs out of a staff like hers (had been). //A mage!// Tired as she was, this sent a thrill of excitement through her. His movements were sure and smooth; elegant. Hatchet man was standing looking relieved, as Cassandra had shield-smacked the demon clawing him. Yordle had a crossbow, and she paused in her approach as he sprang backward behind cover and let fly with three repeating shots. A really neat crossbow, she amended, taking advantage of his reload to join the fray.

Battle focus descended on her like a comforting blanket, muffling all the aches of her body and the confusion of her mind. She ducked under swiping claws as one of the fiends twisted to try and reorient its attacks on Hatchet, and used the momentum of that lunge to thrust her sword into the thing's back - holding it skewered just as Yordle's bolt hit home, right in the demon's head. Lux gave him a thumbs-up and spun to find her next target...

"Quickly! Before more come through!" Thin Bald had different plans. He seized her thumbs-upping hand in a grip like iron, and shoved her shock-splayed fingers towards the twisting green rip the demons had apparently spilled out of. 

"How -" Understanding, when it hit, was physical. It felt like magnetism. The essence of the rip locked on to the foreign magic in her hand, and the sensation of attraction was so strong she planted her feet against being dragged further twoards it before realizing she hadn't actually moved. Luxanna hadn't become as skilled a mage as she was by ignoring her instincts, and now they said PULL BACK. So, she did. Curling her fingers, imagining that she was wrapping them around the now-visible green tether that bound her hand to the tear, she let the connection pulse wider, energy flowing back and forth like current along a lay line.  
A few heartbeats to identify the rhythm, to time it...there! Lux fisted her hand in the man's grasp and yanked back against the magic when the flow of it crashed into her. Unsustained, the green portal collapsed. A brittle crack rang out in the crisp chill as air rushed in to fill the space the 'rift' had occupied.

The man dropped her hand, but she could feel him staring. Lux took a moment, shaking out her tingling fingers. When she did meet his narrowed gaze, it was with widened eyes and an expression of wonder. "What did you do?" She asked him, and he dipped his head, expression smoothing over. 

"I did nothing." He said, with emphasis on the pronoun. "The credit is yours."

Lux brandished her palm between them and tried not to stare at him. "Mine? You mean this?" She angled the tail end of her sentence up, to sound uncertain. The man's bald head made it impossible not to notice his sharply pointed ears. He looked like an older relative of Janna's. Just thinking of her friend made her heart ache - actually ache! Underneath the training and assorted coping mechanisms, she feared she wasn't dealing very well with the whole whatever her situation was. Not remembering it, specifically. How had she forgotten an entire trip North? She hadn't been...where had she been?

Lux shuddered and tore her eyes away, looking for Cassandra. For direction.

"The magic that caused the Breach also placed that mark upon your hand. I theorized the mark might be able to close the rifts that have opened in the breach's wake - and it seems I was correct." Thin Bald Janna's voice was lyrical. Lovely, really, if the rest of him was not. Cassandra, finished wiping her blade clean, snapped it home into its sheath.

"Meaning," she said, "It might close the Breach, as well."

"One hopes," he replied, folding his hands around his staff and slumping a little. Tired? Lux could sympathize. She felt immediately guilty at the thought; selfish. Sure, she was having a rough day, but she was alive. Unlike a lot of people she'd seen so far. The path from the village she'd been held had been littered with the dead; broken bodies left to sink into the snow until all the heat of life was leeched out of them. "Your prisoner is a mage, but I find it difficult to believe any mage could command power capable of this magnitude of destruction." Especially not this one, seemed to be the implication. He'd noted her choice of attack, then. Turning his attention back to her, he said quietly: "It seems you hold the key to our salvation."

She smiled, but weakly, at the pun. She got it, she just didn't know what to DO about it. She didn't know where she was, or how she had gotten there, or what had happened, or why she was suspected of killing a lot of people, but she couldn't very well just escape if she was truly their only hope of survival. 

"Good to know," cut in a smooth baritone, and the short man Lux had noted thumbed some switch on his crossbow and smirked sidelong at them. "Here I thought we'd be ass-deep in demons forever." It was a great pose, and a solid entrance line, and Lux was grateful to him for the distraction. "Varric Tethras," he introduced himself. "Storyteller, scoundrel, and occasionally...unwanted tagalong." He WINKED. Cassandra made a disgusted noise in her throat, and in that moment Lux loved him unreservedly for provoking that noise.

"So you're...also with the chantry?" 

She heard a scoff behind her. "Was that a serious question?" The bald man wondered, making her blush. She had to be careful. It was probably better to say as little as possible.

"Technically, I'm a prisoner. Just like you." Varric ignored the scoff, so Luxanna did, as well. 

"Not /just/ like her. I brought you here to tell your 'story' to the Divine." Cassandra's voice was about as icy as the ground underfoot. "Clearly, that is no longer necessary."

No longer so amused, Varric interrupted her. "Either way, here I am. Lucky for you, considering current events." 

Cassandra huffed out a harsh breath and turned away from all of them, eyeing the path that led upwards out of the demolished walls. 

"Pleased to meet you," Lux said quietly to Varric, abashed. No more stupid questions.

"My name is Solas, if there are to be introductions," Thin Bald said, then. Solas. "I watched over you as you slept." Was that creepy? Was she still residually irritated with him for scoffing at her?

"He means 'I kept that mark from killing you.'" Varric translated. //Oh, That makes more sense.//

"Oh!" Lux turned to the thin, bald Solas and offered him the best smile she could manage in her exhausted state. Even her least-best smiles were winners, she knew. "You must be very clever. How did you manage it? Honestly, it feels pretty determined." //To kill me.// It did, too. Her hand burned with the throb of it, and she wondered what would become of her if her Light wasn't steadily pushing back against it. "And - thank you. Truly."

"Unlike you," Cassandra said unhelpfully, "Solas is an apostate." What? He was a heretic? What religions were common in the Freljord? Her tired mind refused to supply any beyond the Cult of the Watchers. Maybe it was just another term for afflicted; for mages. But she was a mage, too, and Cassandra had already pointed it out.

"Technically, all mages are now apostates, Cassandra." Solas noted. That would mean the organization they were fighting against - the Chantry - would be the religion. Templars and temples. It made sense. Well, it didn't make SENSE, Lux would never understand the blind hatred of magic, but she was used to it.

"...have allowed me to learn much of the fade, far beyond the experience of any Circle mage," Solas was saying, sounding rather pleased with himself. "I came to offer whatever help I can give with the Breach. If it is not closed, we are all doomed - regardless of origin." All? Well, if it was growing unchecked...

"How widespread is...are the rifts?" Lux asked hesitantly, looking between them for an answer. Varric winced. Solas looked at Cassandra. Dad-farmer with an axe had escaped back the way she and Cassandra had come. Apparently, he'd had enough of heroics. "That bad, huh?"

Her big, stupid mouth. At that moment, there was another crack of doom and thunder from the breach above them, tearing itself wider and sending Luxanna staggering sidelong, hand clenched in pain. She managed not to scream, which was progress, but only a quick catch by Cassandra kept her from falling into the snow again. The woman held her until the glow faded, then let her go - but not without a somewhat comforting squeeze on her upper arms. Voice low with concern, Solas said, "My magic cannot stop the mark from growing. We must hurry."

It would be a shame to die, alone and lost, before she even had the chance to close the thing. Lux nodded that she was good to continue, and when Cassandra said "This way. The road ahead is blocked," and hopped over a hastily erected barrier to slide down the hill to the frozen river once again, Lux followed. Blocked it was, the sheer face of what must have been a very tall central building completely obscured by toppled rock and cooling slag. She noted that Varric waited for her to catch her breath and vault over before joining Cassandra and Solas. Making sure she didn't run?

In the river, Lux shielded her eyes and looked up at the Breach again. She thought she could almost see a sort of..beyond...behind the rim of the whirling clouds. Was the the void? Everything she knew about the Rupture and oher such portals said they appeared in the ground; that the void was an abyss the unwary could be pulled down into. And perhaps, now, up?

Varric's voice floated up behind her. "So, what really happened? You're pretty helpful for a murderer."

Cassandra responded, her tone wintry, "She claims not to remember."

Varric tsked. "That'll get you every time. Should have spun a story. It's more believable." He wasn't wrong, Lux knew. Shaking her head, she focused on making her burning legs get her up the hill. Really, how long had it been since she'd eaten? With no immediate threats her senses were dulled with exhaustion again.

Varric wasn't giving up, though. "You're from the Free Marches, then?" Not sure he was talking to her, Lux glanced at him quizzically, and he went on to explain. "The accent. I'm from Kirkwall, myself. I'd put you...further east?"

She was almost too cold to care about the dreadful disappointment welling up in her at her utter lack of recognition of the places he was speaking of. The Free Marches? Was there any such place in the Freljord? Granted, it was vast. "That's quite the ear you have," she said, noncommital. The Radiant Ones had knowledge (knowledge she had stolen for them, in fact) of an enchantment that allowed the bearer to speak languages and with accents that they didn't actually know, provided they heard enough of them. 

The stairs gave way to a path up the steep slope towards the peaks. Clearly a path - the stones that gave traction were pounded neatly into the earth, and even now were not snowed over. There were some sort of markers showing the path, too, stone pillars with fire bowls at their tops, bearing insignias that meant nothing at all to Luxanna.

The path and Lux took a left towards another bridge gate - this one mostly intact. Near as she could tell, they'd been slogging through the remains of a village on this mountainside, towards whatever was at the top of this place. A church, maybe? The 'Valley"? Another of those rifts was there, demons being spit out of it in waves, in synch with the pulse Lux felt in her marked hand. She felt somewhat sorry for them, they reeled and raged and looked disoriented, to her. "Help us! They keep coming!" Someone shouted from the parapet. 

They already knew she was a mage, but did not seem to know WHO she was. As the people around her moved to engage the demons with deadly efficiency, Lux carefully threw out her prismatic barrier. The spinning sphere of light gave her a bubble of protection, and swung out to lay one gently over Varric and Solas, too, as she darted between two reeling shades and hooked the magic in her hand into the rift. She yanked it closed as soon as she had a feel for it, and watched with tired eyes as the last of the fade-born energy dripped into the snow. It looks like it was crying.

"Open the gate!" Cassandra called, and the men behind the walls obeyed. Lux stood, and the sight of more people and a fairly safe stretch of road before them made her sag with relief. She shuffled forward with the rest, mind blessedly numb. They made it to the middle of the bridge, where Cassandra got into an argument with a man in a knee-length gown, while Miss Hood - Leliana - interjected to try and make a sort of 'introduction'. 

"I know who she is," the man cut in. To Cassandra, he snapped, "Bind her! She must be taken to Val Royeaux for execution." Well, that made the whole trip up the mountain seem a bit cruel to Luxanna.

"After I walked all this way? You could've just executed me back in the dungeon!" Her quip made Varric snort, something akin to a laugh. She counted that as a small victory. Hopefully not her last.

"Order me?!" Cassandra was having none of it. On they went, voices getting louder. Lux was getting a headache. Or was she just noticing the headache?

Could they not argue about this after they tried to close the breach? It seemed to Lux that they could debate how to kill one specific person at their leisure if they stopped the damn thing from killing indiscriminately.

Cassandra wanted to go with the soldiers in 'the valley' and push towards the temple (?). Leliana pointed out there was a path through the mountains, much faster - but that a party of scouts had been lost there, and were no longer in contact. Finally, Cassandra turned to her. "What do you think we should do?"

Lux blinked. "You're asking me?" She instantly regretted saying it. //No more stupid questions!//

"You have the mark," Solas pointed out.

"And you are the one we must keep alive," Cassandra said, with a silencing glower at the strident man in the hat and dress. The chancellor.

"Then let's take the faster path," Lux said. She was better in smaller conflicts; smaller groups. Single missions, where there was no one to give her away - or to see her using her magic.


	4. 4 - Glacial Path

That meant they broke off from the meandering path and started literally climbing the mountain. Lux regretted her decision immensely, because it was COLD, but she wouldn't have changed it. She took advantage of a moment when she was the first to crest one of the platforms and sent a little thrill of magic over her skin; just a little. Light, and heat. Her specialty. It wasn't much, just a moment of warmth and comfort and the space to take a few deep breaths, but it helped.

She could hear Cassandra and Varric below. Arguing, probably, though it was hard to make out over the wind. Solas was the next one up the ladder. He stepped aside to catch his breath, as well, looking towards the Breach and narrowing his eyes.

"Where do you think it goes?" Lux drew near to him, speaking quietly. He tilted a thoughtful look down at her - Lux wasn't SHORT, but she wasn't tall like most Demacians. All the imposing size and strength had gone to her brother Garen.

"To the fade." He watched, noting her reflexive frown of confusion. "The breach is a tear in the veil between this world and the Fade." After a beat, he prompted, "The world of magic, and spirits. Are you having trouble with your memory?"

She gave a furtive, anxious nod and then cast her eyes aside, thankful he'd suggested it first. It was more effective to show a lie than tell one. Even if this one wasn't entirely a falsehood. Magic and spirits had their own world, he thought? 

"How much have you lost?" He asked. She glanced back to his eyes and gave a silent, helpless little shrug, and his expression softened in pity. "It may well come back to you. Try not to worry about it now," he advised. "Here they come."

"Worry about what?" Cassandra demanded, barely breathing hard. "The tunnel should be just ahead," she huffed as she slung herself over the top rung of the ladder and made room for Varric. Lux folded her arms across her stomach. 

She was still wearing her battle armor, though the fitted suit beneath it was torn in several places, dirty and wet in most others, and not the warmest of garments to begin with.

Solas distracted Cassandra, for which she was grateful. "What manner of tunnel is it? A mine?"

"Part of an old mining complex," Cassandra confirmed with a nod. "These mountains are full of them. This one should take us through to the temple."

"Be wary," Solas said quietly, maybe mostly for her benefit. "Whatever detained those missing scouts could be anywhere."

Lux gave a tired nod of her head and edged along the narrow scaffolding to the tunnel entrance. It was a great, squared off arch of perfectly fitted stones, looking both ancient and as solidly precise as modern construction.

Lux wanted to summon light but she was still reluctant to show her abilities. Being underestimated was an advantage - usually. Almost always. Advantages felt thin on the ground, so she was clinging on to that one. At that moment she heard an unearthly shriek from her left and threw herself backwards, colliding with someone - with Varric. She caught a swipe of claws along her left shoulder and upper arm in the tight quarters, talons scraping along the metal of her pauldron before parting cloth and flesh alike along her bicep. She hissed with the pain that blossomed, the sting immediate and flaring sharp before the cooling sensation of Solas' shield spell blanketed her. His predictions could use work, but she couldn't criticize too harshly; she was the one wandering blind in the interest of keeping these people in the dark about her abilities.

In the dark. "Ha! Hahaha!" she laughed, abrupt; both disgusted and delighted. It drew a worried look from Solas and he reached out to tug her behind him - out of the way of both foes and allies, so that Cassandra and Varric could engage the creatures and clear the path. She bumped into the facade of a pillar and clapped her hands over her mouth to stifle the crazed giggles that were spilling out, sagging against the cold stone. She was bleeding. She could feel blood sliding down her arm beneath her torn sleeve, and it wasn't funny. Cassandra was fighting in the gloom, herding the fiend into a corner so she could stand between it and her charges, and that wasn't funny, either. So why couldn't she stop laughing?

//You're hysterical,// a calmer part of her brain supplied. Hysterical? Over a minor cut? Sure, she was a prisoner, amongst total strangers, in the midst of both an unfamiliar war-slash-demon-invasion and an unfamiliar place, and she was afflicted with some lethal magical curse, and she was cold and exhausted and thirsty and bleeding, but hysterics? That was embarrassing.

She could see, beyond just the flashes and sparks of magical attacks and dying demons, she realized. The fight was over. She hadn't noticed that, or noticed Varric and Solas finding and lighting a torch. Around the bend of the hall up ahead came a faint, silvery glow. Cassandra strode over, her frown mighty. "We do not have time for you to break down," she told Luxanna bluntly. The embarrassment doubled, making her cheeks and neck burn. Well, maybe it was too dim for them to see her blushing.

"I'm fine," Lux said, and she willed it into truth, levering herself off the pillar and pushing tangled hair back behind her ears. Cassandra blocked her, still frowning, and reached out to grasp her arm and turn it towards the torchlight. Lux looked down, as well. "Not so bad," she told Cassandra. "Just a scratch." She was underselling it, it was a slice - and it hurt - but it wasn't going to hamper her mobility. She sought the taller woman's dark eyes and gave her a steady stare. "I'm fine," She repeated, more firmly. "I won't slow us - unngh!" Naturally, at that moment the mark snapped to life and engulfed her hand in pain and light like a tiny little thunderclap. Lux kept her feet, though her knees went suddenly MIA and she fell back against the pillar.

Solas' voice was urgent. "We must move on." Lux pictured the mark spreading, engulfing her arm and then - what? Would she even live to see it reach her heart? It seemed unfair, to be as skilled as she was at magic and yet not remember the moment she'd caught this hex. If she had seen it cast...they were looking at her, all three of them, and while there was concern for her in some small measure upon Varric's face, what she mostly saw was fear. They were afraid she would die, and with her would die their only sliver of hope.

The decision came all at once. It settled a familiar weight of responsibility over her shoulders, heavy, but also a relief. Feeling more grounded than she had since she'd opened her eyes, she reached for the torch. "Come on," she said, glancing from face to face. "I'll light the way."

If she had to die here, in this strange place, she could at least save some lives first. She would get to that Breach, and close it, by the Light. So she couldn't remember what had happened to bring her here; so what? She would save these people. It was something. She took deep breaths as she pushed on through the darkness, the flicker of the torch a familiar comfort, a light she could draw from. //You can do this. Stay positive.//

*****************

They spoke of holes in the Fade. Or holes that went TO the fade? Solas had mentioned a veil between this place and that one. She half stepped, half slid down an embankment; the stairs that had led them between the mountain passageways were blocked with rubble and unpassable.

"They don't just...happen, though." Varric was saying. It wasn't a question, just a statement he was throwing out for validation.

Solas provided, "If enough magic is brought to bear, it is possible."

"We will worry about what caused the Breach after we seal it," Cassandra said.

Lux admired her optimism, but felt it warranted a little consideration now, too. Listening intently, she had already climbed down into the crater before she registered what she was looking at.

Huge spikes of black rock jutted up into the air in concentric arcs, like they had been molten, and splashed up around an impact. A fine coating of snow dusted the devastation, and blew around in eddies. It was surreal, and throbs of green light in the fractured veins of the stone completed the alien landscape. Whatever that energy was, it had flooded through the rock and made it behave like liquid. She bet the blinding eye of the breach was positioned directly above the center of this stony 'splash', and was the result of a sudden release of an enormous amount of pent up magical energy. Solas' comment suddenly made more sense. It was clearly the scene of some serious magical backlash.

"Such a waste," Solas murmured, dropping down quietly behind her. Gently, Lux touched the blackened, papery surface of the figure..corpse she stood by. Man or woman, it was impossible to tell, now. All she could say for certain was the person died on their knees. In agony. It didn't look human anymore: charred and half-melted as it was.

"The Temple of Sacred Ashes," Cassandra intoned mournfully. "What is left of it." There was real grief in her voice, so Lux wisely did not note how apt that name was. Excepting, perhaps, the 'temple' part. There was little enough left here to indicate a structure had stood - a large one, too, she reckoned, much of it underground. Everywhere she looked were twisted limbs, and blackened, broken rock. She let Cassandra take the lead, and the woman guided them into a tunnel formed by the slump and settling of a few walls so they could get under the worst of the debris into the (relatively) clearer main interior chamber. Well, it was once a chamber. Now it was a broken square of walkways around a magical pit, open to the sky.

And what a sky it was. She looked up as they entered, and could not stop the breathless "Wow," that slipped past her lips. Just above the ruined temple, the breach swirled and flashed high in the sky. A rift like the couple she'd already closed - just much, much bigger - dripped down from it like a glob of honey reluctant to fall from the spoon. The effect was a little dizzying, giving the impression that the entire shifting, spiking, magical mass might slip free and crush her at any time, or swallow her up. //Or maybe,// she thought wildly, //it already has.//

Lux tore her eyes away to map out the rest of the ruin. There were red crystals jutting out of the masonry, likely not a part of the design from the way the stone crumbled and shattered around them, and a scattering of archers and soldiers (maybe?). Miss Hood - Leliana, Lux reminded herself - came jogging up to them. "Thank the Maker you're here!" She exclaimed to Cassandra, and the two of them entered a brief discussion about where to place their men while Lux stepped to the edge of the crumbling balcony they stood upon and peered up at the breach, beyond the rift.

She had to be somewhat close to a rift to feel that magical tether that let her latch on and close them. How would she get close enough to the Breach, itself? Leaning against the barrier, she watched the rift below the Breach for a moment. It didn't look exactly like the others: it was not spitting out demons, for one thing, and the shifting shafts of green energy around it were not as fluid. They stabbed out and disappeared in geometric shapes, almost like crystals. More solid; defined. Maybe this tear wasn't all the way open?

"I can't reach the breach itself," she said, flexing her marked hand. They didn't say she stepped out of the breach. Cassandra said she'd stepped out of a rift. Where had she been? Should she try to go back through one? Would they all close, if the breach did?

"But this rift was the first, and it could be the key," Solas interrupted, behind her shoulder. She glanced back in time to see him look at Cassandra, gesturing with one hand. "Seal it, and perhaps we seal the Breach as well."

//Or it could backfire and make everything worse,// Lux thought, but she had no better idea. "It's a plan," she allowed, trying for a positive tone. Her voice betrayed her, cracking on the syllables. She was so tired - and thirsty. "I'm so thirsty," she murmured out loud. something bumped her arm and she looked down to see Varric offering her a skin bag with a spout. A water carrier, she realized as she took it and heard the sloshing. "Thank you!" She unstoppered it and poured the tepid liquid into her mouth. The first mouthful, she swished around and turned away from everyone to spit into the dust. Unladylike, but they had bigger problems.

"This rift is dormant," Solas said, watching her. "We must break it open before it can be properly sealed." He met Lux's eyes, but spoke loud enough for Cassandra and the rest to hear, "We must be prepared for whatever may come through."

"That means demons!" Cassandra called out in a commanding voice. "Be ready!"

Lux handed the skin back to Varric with an adoring smile. "Thank you - really."

"No problem, Sunshine." Varric said easily. He looked a little concerned for her. It was endearing. She told herself that's why she felt the sudden sting of tears in her eyes. Not because Sunshine was Ezreal's nickname for her. She hastily turned her attention back to the rift below the breach. "All right - let's do this," she said resolutely, letting none of the uncertainty she felt color her tone. "Going!" She hopped over some toppled masonry and began skirting the ruins, the circuitous route to the pit below seeming the safest course.

As they passed more of those jutting crystals, she heard Varric speak up, anxious. "Are you seeing this, Seeker? It's red lyrium!"

Cassandra bit back, "I see it, Varric."

"But what's it DOING here?" She didn't look back, but Lux could picture him wringing his hands from the anxious tone in his voice. When she stretched out her fingers towards one of the crystals, he all but leapt forward to grab her arm. "You don't wanna do that. This is...dangerous shit." He looked miserable, so Lux just nodded instead of asking for explanation. Varric muttered, "Hate to see you turned into a statue." Neither did Lux; she primly held her arms at her sides as she led the way downards, despite her fond memories of a certain statue she knew. Everything seemed so laden with nostalgia, homesickness twisting her up inside more than it ever had before. She didn't even know how far from home she was. When her boots hit the stone-dust of the pit, she took a moment to crane her neck and peer up at the rift, now just above them. She could definitely feel it.

That's when she heard the voice.


	5. 5 - Hero's Entrance

NOW IS THE HOUR OF OUR VICTORY. BRING FORTH THE SACRIFICE.

Lux froze, a quick glance revealing her companions had done the same. "You have a Public Announcer?" she asked. On Runeterra, magic and technology mingled, varyingly relied upon and fused together into hextech. She got no response.

"What..." Cassandra started, then trailed off, looking around for the sound that seemed to come from everywhere.

"Memories of what occurred here seep into this place, from the Fade," Solas intoned quietly. "At a guess." Lux's guess had been way off, so she resolved to trust the man who seemed confident. 

"If it's just an echo, we should press on." She tried to catch Cassandra's eye, to tell her to have some men move behind the rift from their perspective, when --

SOMEONE! HELP ME!

Cassandra gasped, and Lux lost her moment. "That was Justinia's voice!"

\-- MEAN THE SAME THING, EZ! WHA..WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?

And THAT was her voice. Her own voice, with the unmistakable burble of a giddy laugh, fading into confusion. Luxanna felt herself reeling. Were these echoes from the same place? The same event? What had she been doing? Had Ezreal been there? She was aware of Cassandra grabbing her arms and gripping her tight. She was aware because Cassandra was fucking strong, and her arm was cut, and it really hurt.

RUN WHILE YOU CAN! WARN THEM!

"You WERE there! She called out to you - what happened to Justinia?" She gave Lux another shake, and the blonde could not hold back her hiss.

"I don't know!" Lux cried.

Varric interrupted. Reluctantly. "Easy, Seeker. We came here for a reason, right?" The older woman's eyes cut to Varric, furious, and Lux saw him shrink slightly. She didn't think badly of him. Cassandra had a scowl that might have intimidated anyone. It might have intimidated Lux, honestly, if she had not been pushed about five feet beyond her ability to muster up appropriate fear responses. She wrenched herself away with a grimace.

"I don't remember this, Cassandra - I'm just as confused as you are!" //More so//, she thought. "So let's do what you brought me here to do." She looked at the three of them, in turn. "Focus on the battle."

Cassandra looked conflicted, but she raised a hand to signal the men scattered about and readied her sword.

Lux heard the scuff of metal on leather and the draw of a bowstring from somewhere above and behind her as Solas stepped close. "You will have to direct power into the rift, instead of pulling it to yourself," he said. "Focus on the tear, and encourage it to draw from you." She nodded at him, troubled expression on her face. "I will be here," he said by way of encouragement. "Clear your mind, as best you can." //As best I can?// Lux needed no one to talk her through focusing for spellwork, though his mellifluous voice was pleasant enough.

********

There was a fight. She had not expected the behemoth. Someone called it pride, she registered distantly, wondering why this demon was ten times bigger and nastier than any of the others she'd seen. It focused several sets of eyes on HER and roared, infuriated that she'd once again dodged past the lesser demons beating themselves against the men Leliana had brought. Using her marked hand, Luxanna grabbed onto the sorcerous thread connecting her to this rift and began feeding energy into it. She let the back and forth pulses flow, elongate, and snapped herself away out of the rhythm, causing the flow of energy to splash back into the rift in a wild surge. The shockwave, she knew only she and the other mage could feel, but it shattered the glowing protection charm the demon had woven around itself. Lux heard Cassandra ordering everyone to press the attack, and felt the cool breeze of one of Solas' own protection spells settling over her at the same time she launched herself backward, trying to clear away from the backfisted sweep of the beast.

It was mostly a blur, in her exhaustion, as she dodged demons and fed energy into the rift. She got it open, trying to ignore the cries of pain and fury all around her. Flashes and splashes, energy and blood. The back and forth power play between her and the giant rift began, threatening to shake her off her feet with each crash of energy, and when the moment was right, she snapped it off --

 

******

Lux snorted herself awake in a most undignified fashion, hand mashing across her face to wipe the wetness she felt on her cheek. She'd been sleeping hard, it seemed. Blearily, she blinked around the room that housed the bed she was no doubt lying on. It was all warm, flickering candlelight painted across log walls and simple woodcarved furnishings, a much-loved woven rug, broomstick chair and a simple plank of a desk, a chest for storing..something, and a startled looking slip of a girl with pointed ears and wiry hair that stood out straight from her scalp.

"Oh!" The girl gasped, and promptly dropped the shallow basket she'd been carrying. "You're awake!"

"Oops." Lux's eyes trailed after the basket as it tumbled onto the rug. "Where.."

"I'm sorry, Your Worship!" The girl cried, and hit the floor so hard Lux heard the boards rattle, head bowed.

"Yikes," the blonde's voice was hoarse from disuse. "That sounded like it hurt. Are you..alright?" She glanced around, and added more quietly, bewildered: "Are you bowing to me? If so, please stop it immediately."

The girl looked up, confused and uncomfortable, and slowly backed up onto her feet. "I'm..sorry, Your Worship. Lady - Lady Cassandra said she'd be waiting for you in the chantry."

//Waiting for me to do what?// Lux wondered. "Where am I?" She spied a pitcher and cup on the table next to her bed, and rolled gracelessly off the mattress to pour herself a drink. She felt heavy, and parched.

The poor girl knitted her brow. "You are..back in Haven, my lady. They say you saved us. The Breach stopped growing! That's what they say. It's all anyone's talked about, these last three days. I.. Lady Cassandra is waiting for you in the Chantry. She'll want to know you've awakened!" And off she went, darting out the door. Lux watched her go, still drinking. She drained an entire cup of tepid water and went back for more, ambling around the room a bit to stretch out her limbs. She got a toe under the dropped basket and flipped it up so she could snag it and lay it on the chair, bending carefully to retrieve the pile of linens that had fallen out of it.

Three days. That was a long time to sleep. Lux didn't feel too bad, though, all things considered. She was sleep-heavy, (less) thirsty, hungry, and a little stiff - and still stuck in this unfamiliar place. But, she was alive, and reasonably clear-headed, and apparently the Breach had stopped growing, //That's what they say//, and someone had put her in clean clothes. She frowned, debating whether that should go in the con column instead of the pro. It was nice, certainly, but sort of creepy to think about. Who changed her? Who WASHED her? "Get it together," she told herself aloud, reassured by her own amused tone.

There was a cloudy mirror on the table, as well, and she paused to take a look. Her face was a little thinner than usual, but it was certainly her. She wiggled her marked hand in front of her face, peering at the softly glowing green scar, then used it to finger comb her hair. At least it didn't hurt, much. That had to be a good sign, right?

Lux tried to keep her spirits up as she stepped out into another blindingly bright day. Her eyes immediately searched for the breach in the sky. It was still there, but it looked much less active to her. It swirled, but slowly, just the natural dance of differently charged particles - not the violent vortex it had been before. It wasn't dripping deathly green fireballs, either. She wasn't sure how to feel. On one hand, it wasn't actively killing people and destroying the world. On the other, it was still there. And she still didn't remember how she'd gotten here. To 'Haven'. 

//One thing at a time,// she told herself, determinedly starting down the path in front of the cabin she'd awoken in so she could find this 'chantry'. It was the name Leliana had used for a faith, she'd surmised. Maybe it was also the name of a holy place.

She froze midstep as she realized all the denizens of this - fort? Hamlet? - whatever it was, the paths through it were lined with people, and all of them were looking at her. As she stared back, some soldiers in more or less matching armor saluted, and she heard a murmur: "It's her - the Herald." It sounded more reverent than angry.

There were so many of them, quiet and watchful. She felt a strange, overwhelming urge to sit down, put her head on her knees, and sob. She didn't know where she was, she didn't know who these people were, she didn't know WHY they were STARING at her or what they were waiting for. Her vision swam, and she wanted to - oh, she wanted to, but she knew it wouldn't make it go away. There would just be more whispering. Maybe those saluting men would stop saluting and drag her to the chantry. Wouldn't that be embarrassing? At least she wasn't chained up like a prisoner. Swallowing hard to force the lump down her throat, and blinking to clear her stinging eyes, she forced her feet to move. One step, then another, her eyes skating nervously over the unfamiliar faces watching her.

"...she did it. She saved us!"  
"....Breach is still there, though..."  
"...the Herald of Andraste..."  
"...Andraste sent her?"

The hardest part was not running. Lux kept herself at a quick but steady pace despite her pounding heart and the itchy feeling of that many eyes on her. It wasn't that she was shy. Lux was used to people staring at her. She was used to people listening when she spoke; to following her into battle, even. Luxanna Crownguard was well known to people all over Demacia, and even to some outside of it.

But she was not in Demacia. These were not her people, and they bore her no love. There was awe on some of those faces she was looking at despite herself, but there was also a great wariness. Like she was an exotic animal in a circus, and no one was quite sure what she'd do. There was nothing of home; nothing she recognized. Nothing except that damned Breach and these people who'd been ready to see her put to death just hours..alright, days ago.

She thrust her chin up like she belonged there, like she deserved to be followed, and marched past more women in those holy dresses to throw open the doors of what must have been the Chantry. 

The inside of the temple was in shambles. Pews had been pushed to the sides of the room and stacked with things - supplies, she guessed. Or garbage. Candles and braziers were lit all around but it was still dark, and strange, and she crept warily to the side and explored by poking her head into a door. A study, of sorts? And empty! She slipped inside and let the door shut, even indulging in a ball of conjured light for herself so she could poke into the books and notes lying around. Or could she?

Going perfectly still for a few heartbeats, she heard no stirring outside, so she picked up a book off a stack on the nearby desk and flipped it open experimentally.

The page was filled with angular, runic writing. Incomprehensible at first, and she felt another surge of disappointment threatening. Then, before her eyes, the ink on the page rearranged itself into her own written language; familiar to her as the back of her hand.

"Yes," Lux breathed happily. The enchantment was still functional, and she was almost weak with relief and gratitude. Greedily, she began scanning the book's pages. This was some sort of religious history, it seemed. References to a 'chant' of many movements and verses, and a name: Andraste. She sounded it out a couple of different ways, and then started. Andraste? Hadn't someone murmured that name outside? She flipped to the front of the book and saw it was called "The Chant of Light: Historical Parallels". Aha? Chants, and chantries?

The title was promising. Demacians did not chant about the Light, but it was sacred nonetheless. She started to sink into the chair before the desk, but caught herself. Cassandra was waiting for her. Hopefully she'd have a chance to read later. Lux slipped back into the main chamber of the church, following the wide red carpet that spanned the length of the hall towards the most well-lit door in the entirety of it, directly at the back. As she drew near, she could hear muffled voices drifting out from behind it.

She thought she recognized the nasal voice that was constantly asking for her to be taken to 'Val Royeaux', and spite put some zeal in her movements when she threw that door open, as well, and strode through with a boldness she only partially felt.

"Chain her!" The Chancellor's volume rose when she barreled in - or so it seemed. "I want her taken to the capital Immediately." Immediately! She could hear the capitalization in his tone, and it sent a ghost of a smile across her lips.

Behind a long table, which (aside from an equally long bench pushed beneath it) appeared to be the only furniture in the room, Cassandra said calmly, "Disregard that, and leave us." There was a shuffle and clink of metal as two guards saluted behind Lux, and did as Cassandra bade them. 

Cassandra, Leliana, and the Chancellor argued back and forth for a minute or two, Lux paying attention to their tones and postures as much as their words. Context was something she didn't have, so she focused on body language.

She interjected when it seemed appropriate; when eyes landed on her. "I tried to close it, and it almost killed me," she hazarded, since being unconscious for three days was not a normal occurrence. "I'll try again, too." 

Cassandra approved, she could tell; the woman apparently saw little reason to control her facial expressions. The slight look of pride faded as she turned her attention back to the Chancellor, and she hefted a book as thick as Lux's neck down on the table. It bore a bladed eye insignia on the cover. "You know what this is." Lux certainly didn't, so she just looked between them in silence. //It's a book.// 

After an accusation of complicity in the death of the Divine from Leliana (one Lux wagered was mostly to intimidate him), the Chancellor stormed out.

When the door shut behind him, Lux turned to the two women who remained. "What do you mean, the Inquisition of old?"

"It was the Divine's last directive," Leliana said, face carefully expressionless. "The Inquisition pre-dates the Chantry. In times of darkness, they were those who banded together to stand against the chaos. It's what we must do. Because she commanded, and because it is right. Justinia wished to put an end to this fighting, and was prepared to do so with steel, if diplomacy failed." Fire licked the edges of the redhead's tone, and Lux found herself nodding cautiously. "We lost everything. And then, out of nowhere..." She looked at Luxanna, her gaze piercing. "We have few men, and no allies. Now, no Chantry support - but we are the only ones who will stand against the darkness, and we need your help."

//"Will you serve, Luxanna? Will you bring the light of Demacia to the shadows that threaten our people? Even knowing they will not thank you."//

Her voice seemed to come from far away, beyond the echoes of Kahina's words in her memory. Lux said: "You're talking about a war. Not just closing the Breach..." People did not band armies together for anything BUT war.

"We are already at war," Cassandra cut in. Her voice was rough, but not angry. "The violence between the mages and templars is raging all around, and innocent people are suffering. Should we do nothing?"

"No," Lux said immediately, and she meant it. "I just..." she glanced between the two women, their faces respectively earnest and intense. "I just don't want to fight a war."

A complicated mixture of disdain and sympathy softened Cassandra's expression. "You need not literally fight. Much. But it will be dangerous, I will not tell you otherwise." 

Lux felt acutely guilty. Cassandra thought she was a coward - an inexperienced and untalented mage. The trouble with lies - whether told or simply portrayed - was that they built upon themselves; the weight of them a burden that grew more difficult to cast off with each passing moment.

Was she a coward? It wasn't that she was afraid to fight - what a ridiculous idea. Lux had seen battlefields, and the aftermath. She had led men and women to them. She just didn't want to fight for the wrong side; for the wrong cause. She had no grasp on the situation she was in, and felt desperately lost - far too lost to blindly commit to violence. Where was she? The need to ask welled up in her throat, undeniable. She was going to blurt it out, or scream, or --

"Help us fix this, before it is too late," Leliana said, softly. She moved up beside Cassandra and offered Lux her hand. What was she getting herself into, if she agreed to this? Conversely...what other options did she have? She could run - cast a magic veil of invisibility and slip away. But that WOULD make her a coward, wouldn't it? She didn't run from her problems, and considering that breach was still in the sky, and in her HAND, this was her problem.

Lux nodded, and slipped her hand into Leliana's. "All right," she said, her voice steady.


	6. Chapter 6

t was with a feeling of trepedition that Lux approached the chantry bright and early on her fourth day in Haven. She'd done some (a lot of) reading, and a lot of speaking to those around the small village: blacksmiths, Chantry sisters (no brothers, oddly). She spoke to those who did the menial tasks that keep any organization running, as often as she could, anyway. Some were too flustered by her to be very forthcoming. Lux was finding she liked being a religious icon much less than a military one.

The Mage-Templar conflict that seemed to have started all the trouble, at least, made a bit more sense to her. She'd found a copy of Varric's book - Varric had written several, it seemed - about the Champion of Kirkwall, and the events that led to the mage uprising. She'd kept reading it the previous night, guiltily, long after she'd realized it was more narrative than informational. His writing was much like the impression she'd gotten of him, in their brief time together on that mountainside: wry and witty and absently affectionate towards the subject. She was saving it for before she went to sleep - assuming she made it through to another bedtime. Positive thoughts! 

They were hard to keep up, even for Lux - a young woman whose sunny disposition was not artifice (even if it was useful). She kept waking up in this cold, tiny village. That hole in the sky remained. She had no more memory of how she'd arrived in this place. She forced herself to keep on the path towards that building, and her meeting with Cassandra and Leliana and some 'advisors'. The taller woman - the Seeker of Truth, she'd heard, which was a really good title - fell into step beside her as she climbed the short staircase by the quartermaster's tent. Cassandra nodded at her but said nothing for a moment, and Lux found herself relaxing into the familiar habit of matching her purposeful steps to antoher's. It wasn't the comfort of boots on stone, marching all in unison, but it was nice. Cassandra had a slight limp. 

Once they entered the dim of the Chantry, the mark on her hand flared, softly. 

"Does it trouble you?" Cassandra asked, eyes on Lux. Maybe she was wary of having to catch her. 

Lux shook her head. "It doesn't hurt anymore," she said, and it was mostly true. "I just wish I knew where it came from! I wish I remembered how I got it."

"We'll find out," Cassandra reassured, making Lux blink sidelong at her. That was surprisingly supportive. "The important thing is, the Breach is stable, and you remain our hope of closing it. Solas thinks that you can do it, provided enough power is poured into the mark -- the kind of power it took to open the Breach in the first place. It won't be easy to come by."

Lux's brows shot up. "Let's power up the magic we don't understand!" She couldn't help it; the laugh that bubbled out of her was so purely amused, and it felt good to let it go. "What could possibly go wrong?"

Cassandra huffed a breath out her nose. It wasn't a laugh - not even close - but it felt like a victory. "Hold on to that sense of humor," the woman advised dryly, throwing out a hand to shove open the doors of the makeshift 'war room'. 

"You'll need it, considering the mess this has become." Leliana was standing by the door, and chimed in to their conversation as they entered. There were two other people in the room, a blond man Lux gathered to be in charge of the Inquisition's martial members, and a beautiful dark skinned woman in an overwrought cloth-of-gold shirt.

Cassandra gave the redhead a look of some sort, but she was turned away from Lux to do it. "You have met Sister Leliana," Cassandra said. "She is our spymaster."

Leliana's lips rolled in as she squelched whatever expression she wanted to make at the Seeker. "Tactfully put, as always."

Barreling on, Cassandra gestured to the blond man. "May I present Commander Cullen, leader of the Inquisition's forces." Present? Oh, dear. Lux didn't much like the sound of that. She was too far out of her element to be having people presented to her.

The man's warm brown eyes swept her face, and then cut away. "Such as they are," he said. "We lost so many in the valley." It made her feel bad, which irritated her. It wasn't her fault. Was it? No. At least, not her fault on purpose. That was laid right at the feet of the man whose voice she'd heard in the Temple of Sacred Ashes, talking about a sacrifice. 

Cassandra added, "And this is Lady Josephine Montilyet, our chief diplomat." The dark-skinned woman inclined her head over a fire-hazard of a writing board. "It is a pleasure to meet you," Josephine said, with a lovely accent. "I've heard much."

There was a slight pause as they all looked at her after this round of introductions. "That's a lot of titles," she burbled.

"Your mark needs more power to seal the Breach for good," Cassandra announced, and Lux wondered if she was the only one who found it a very awkward segue. 

"Yes, we must find a way to approach the rebel mages for help," Leliana said, in the tone of something she had repeated more than once.

"I still disagree!" The Commander, Cullen, was just as familiar with the subject, it seemed. "The templars could serve just as well."

Cassandra growled. "We need POWER, Commander. Enough magic poured through that mark -"

"Might destroy us all!" He shot back, and Lux couldn't fault his concern. "Templars could work to suppress the Breach, to weaken it --" THAT was interesting.

"Pure speculation." Leliana said, succinct.

"I was a templar," Cullen bit out, his tone carefully measured. "I know what they can do." He was? That certainly cast him in a different light. Luxanna had not heard a lot of good things about templars and their treatment of mages. 

"Unfortunately," came the smoother tones of Josephine, "Neither group has any interest in speaking to us, thus far. The Chantry has already denounced the Inquisition - and you, specifically." 

Lux blinked. Did it matter? She felt like she was walking through a minefield, about to hit a poisonous mushroom cloud. She was fumbling blind, and she didn't like it. "Can't you just keep ignoring them?" That seemed to be the way they'd been dealing with Chancellor Roderick.

"If only," Josephine said, her tone permanently conciliatory. Lux reckoned she was a great diplomat, based on that alone. "Some are calling you - a mage - the Herald of Andraste. That frightens the clerics, and that fear is dangerous."

As an unbiased (or at least, very new) observer of the whole situation, Lux didn't bother to stop herself from sniping. "They should be afraid. The people they oppressed are rising up, as they are wont to do."

Cullen openly grimaced. Leliana's eyes cut towards Cassandra, but Josephine, bless her, pressed smoothly on. "The remaining clerics have labeled it blasphemy, and we? Heretics. For harboring you."

The clarification was unnecessary, but cute, so Lux smiled at Josephine. "I do appreciate the harboring."

"It limits our options," Josephine admitted. "Denounced by the Chantry as we are, we have no legitimacy to approach the templars, or the mages. They have their sights on...bigger things."

Lux arched an eyebrow. "They aren't concerned about the Breach? The rifts?"

Cullen scoffed. "Oh, they know the Breach is a threat. They just don't think we're equipped to handle it."

"And the Chantry is telling people you'll make it worse," Josephine said.

Of course. There were undoubtedly still templars and clerics left with sense. They knew her mark could close the rifts, and were leaving that to her while grabbing for power in the vacuum. "..what? They think they can chant the Breach closed?" No one so much as huffed in amusement. That's what she got for trying that line on actual members of the religion. 

"But what if I do make it worse?" She found herself blurting. "I was in the wrong place, at the wrong time. I'm not actually the herald of Andraste." Pretty confident on that point. "Or anything." Less so, that one. Because she couldn't be sure, could she? She didn't know how she had ended up here, or why. She couldn't rule out the possibility she had been summoned - or projected. 

"You stabilized the Breach," Cassandra said. "We all feared it might grow until it swallowed the world, and then you stopped it. People saw that - they saw YOU. They have spread the tales of seeing the woman behind you in the rift, and some believe that was Andraste."

"Even if we tried to stop that rumor from spreading -" Leliana began.

"Which we have not." Cassandra's words were succinct, and the two women shared another meaningful look Lux could not decipher.

"Even if we did, it is too late. The point is, everyone is talking about you. If calling you the Herald of Andraste gives the people hope, we can use that."

Lux just nodded. It was all too familiar, for a situation she'd literally tumbled into. A light in the darkness. A beacon of hope. If they needed her to be a figurehead, she could do that.

"It's quite the title, isn't it? How do you like it?" Cullen's tone was patronizing. It cut through Lux's musings and tweaked her irritation. She could feel the promise of a headache; just a little seed in her left temple, getting ready to sprout. 

She swung her gaze to him and held it just a hair too long before responding. Just long enough to send a hint of her displeasure at being talked to like a child. "It's a bit unnerving," she admitted (in a slightly crisper tone than was her usual).

"I'm sure the Chantry would agree," he seemed pleased. At least, he was smirking. She had the feeling he was being ungracious towards the church, and not her.

"Hm. There is something you can do," Leliana spoke up, pushing off the wall she'd been leaning against and walking towards the tattered map spread on the table.


End file.
